Oleg Maisenberg

Oleg Iossifowitsch Maisenberg ( Russian Олег Иосифович Майзенберг ; born April 29, 1945 in Odessa ) is a Russian pianist and professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna .

Life

At the age of five Maisenberg received his first piano lessons from his mother. In 1965 he attended the Central Music School in Kishinew and studied from 1966 to 1971 at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow with Alexander Jocheles, whose assistant he later became.

He won second prize at the Schubert Competition in Vienna in 1967. In the same year he was able to win another competition there, that of the music of the 20th century .

Between 1971 and 1980 he performed in subscription concerts with the Moscow Philharmonic and with other Soviet orchestras. In 1972 there was a first chamber music concert with Gidon Kremer , with whom he has had an artistic partnership ever since.

In 1981 he emigrated to the West and settled in Vienna.

Under Eugene Ormandy he made his American debut in 1983 with the Philadelphia Orchestra . Between 1985 and 1998 he taught as a professor at the Stuttgart University of Music and from March 1, 1998 went to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna .

The aftermath of a car accident in 1997, which he describes as the most uncomfortable in his life and which led to a handicap in his right hand, forced him to change his playing technique and practice unfamiliar fingerings .

On the occasion of his 60th birthday in 2004 he gave nine concerts with works by Russian composers in the Wiener Musikverein .

Repertoire and reception

Maisenberg's broad repertoire as a soloist, song accompanist - for example by Hermann Prey and Robert Holl - as well as chamber musicians ranges from the Viennese classic to the moderate modern .

In the West he first appeared as a partner of Gidon Kremer, with whom he played Franz Schubert's sonatinas for violin and piano, virtuoso transcriptions and sonatas by Béla Bartók and Erwin Schulhoff . The tension in this artistic collaboration resulted from the contrast between Kremer's extroverted playing and Maisenberg's cautiously subtle piano playing.

Maisenberg has also made a name for himself as a soloist since his emigration, even if this is reflected in comparatively few recordings.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographical information from: Ingo Harden, Gregor Willmes, PianistenProfile 600 performers: their biography, their style, their recordings , Oleg Maisenberg, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, p. 470
2. ↑ Magazine for Friends of Steinway in Austria (PDF; 804 kB)
3. ↑ Ingo Harden, Gregor Willmes, PianistenProfile 600 performers: their biography, their style, their recordings , Oleg Maisenberg, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, p. 471

Web links

• Sound carrier by Oleg Maisenberg in the catalog of the German National Library